Wizards vs. Kings

The Wizards and Kings have endured similar paths this season. Both stumbled out of the gates, got their coaches fired, and haven’t experienced much success since. The Wizards can blame a lot of their problems on injuries. The Kings’ excuse for being bad is simply not having very good players.

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As Mike James said Monday after the Golden State game “They’re struggling, and we’re struggling, and whoever struggles the most is going to lose.”

The Wizards will go with the same lineup of James, Butler, Jamison, Blatche and McGuire. For the Kings, Kevin martin and Beno Udrih start at guard, Brad Miller at center and John Salmons and Jason Thompson start at the forward positions.

DeShawn Stevenson was on the court knocking down 3-pointers during pregame warmups, but won’t play tonight. He said after he goes through a few practices, he’ll be back in action.

I asked Ed Tapscott of his thoughts from watching the inauguration yesterday, and this is what he had to say: “It was extremely interesting, a wonderful, historic moment, and like many, many people it gave me a great sense of hopefulness, not only because of the makeup of our president — it’s not president elect anymore — but also because of the giddiness of so many people.” Someone asked Ed if the president has a standing invitation to drop by the Wizards practices, and Tapscott replied “He can come over whenever he likes, and we’ll even let him run a few plays.”

Caron Butler said watching the inauguration was an amazing moment for him, and said he was on the phone with many family members during the ceremony. “Everyone’s at ease now,” he smiled. While he’s hoping that there’s some way he can make the All-Star team as a reserve, when the coaches’ picks for that are announced next week, Butler said if he doesn’t make the squad a third straight year, he has a nice consolation prize now that Obama’s in office. “I’d like to make it, but if I don’t, I’ll be at home with my family, and watching Barak on CNN, doing his thing.”